Administrative Information

Repository Information

Conditions Governing Access note

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use note

Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees
concerning intellectual property rights. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees
may apply when requesting reproductions.

Custodial History note

The materials in this collection were acquired in conjunction with the development
of the Time and Navigation Exhibition by Smithsonian staff at the National Air and
Space Museum and the National Museum of American History.

Preferred Citation note

Biographical/Historical note

Ed Tuck of the Boundary Fund, a venture capital firm specializing in technologies
founded the Magellan Systems Corporation in 1986 and served as its director from 1986
to 1993. Tuck assembled the initial team of Norm Hunt, Larry Weill, Val Wong, and
Sab Ifune to conduct a feasibility study in early 1986 to pursue commercial markets
for products based on global positioning system (GPS) technology. Magellan introduced
the first handheld commercial GPS receiver in 1989 and was the first company to make
GPS devices affordable to consumers. Magellan introduced the first handheld commercial
GPS receiver in 1989 and was the first company to make GPS devices affordable to consumers.
The company successfully introduced GPS products into the marine, professional, military
and automotive and general aviation markets.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) began as a United States Department of Defense
Program in the 1960s with a navy system known as Transit (first satellite navigation
system). Two other projects soon followed, Timation (satellite to broadcast accurate
time reference) and Air Force Project 612B, which began in the 1970s. In 1973, the
development of the Navigation Signal Timing and Ranging Global Positioning System
(NAVSTAR) began under the management of the Air Force. Designed by the military, the
system provided twenty-four positioning satellites under all- weather conditions using
passive (non-transmitting) receivers. This kept a user's presence from being detected
as a result of the receiver. Although primarily for military use, the system also
offered a less-precise coded signal for civilian use.

GPS uses a group of twenty-four earth-orbiting satellites which broadcast continuously.
The data being broadcast can be processed by a portable receiver to determine a user's
position, velocity and time. GPS has three parts: 1) space part with twenty-four satellites;
2) ground part with monitor and 3) user part with receivers that process the signals
and calculate position.

In the spring of 1986, the Magellan team published a specification for a custom mixed
signal RF (radio frequency) integrated circuit and by fall 1986, had a breadboard
(used in prototyping of electronics) and began software development and testing. Magellan
focused its research, product engineering, and design activities on the development
of GPS receivers that were application-specific, software-intensive, reliable, lower
power, easy to use, and affordable.

From 1986 to 1988, the Boundary Fund provided the venture capital for feasibility
studies and the initital product design. By 1988, the company occupied its first stand-alone
facility in Monrovia, California with thirty-five employees. In May 1989, the company's
first product, the NAV 1000, shipped, and in that same year, the company entered the
military market with the NAV 1000M. The company entered the professional market in
January 1990 with the NAV 1000 PRO, the world's first hand-held GPS product. By 1991,
Magellan moved to a new facility in Dimas, California and introduced advanced five-channel
technology. It also incorporated in the United Kingdom (UK) as Magellan Systems to
handle product distribution in the rest of the UK and Europe.

The SkyNAV 5000 was introduced in 1992 for the general aviation market, and in the
same year, hand-held differential GPS technology for the marine market appeared. Magellan
was purchased by Orbital Sciences Corporation in 1994. In 2001, Thales Group purchased
the Magellan division of Orbital Sciences, and the company became known as Thales
Navigation. In 2006, a private equity firm, Shah Capital Partners, and other investors
purchased Thales Navigation, and the company was officially renamed Magellan Navigation.
Magellan (also known as MiTAC Digital Corporation) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of
MiTAC International Corporation and promotes and sells products and services under
the Magellan brand name. Magellan is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Scope and Contents note

The Magellan Systems Corporation Records document various aspects of the development
of Magellan GPS devices, including the engineering, research, design, manufacturing,
and marketing of the devices. The collection includes correspondence and internal
company reports and memoranda; design drawings; research notes; engineering notebooks,
technical notes, schematics; photographs, slides and negatives; video and audiocassettes;
advertisements; product literature, magazine articles and newspaper clippings; press
releases; and user guides and manuals. In Series 1, Operational Materials, Subseries
3, Weekly Reports, 1988-1996, provides an excellent overview of the issues facing
the company and what actions/decisions were made and in Series 3, Engineering and
Product Development Materials, Subseries 8, Technical Product Development Seminars
provide a good foundation for understanding what the product development staff accomplished.

The core team of players who developed, tested and brought to market the GPS devices
included: Janice Jones Blankenhorn, Gary Barta, John Foukos, Randy Hoffman, Norm Hunt,
Sab Ifune, Don Rea, Dennis Rich, Ed Tuck, Jon Vavrus, Larry Weill, Val Fife Wong,
and James Yuan. The majority of the core team were software and hardware engineers
as well as mechanical designers. Their energy, enthusiasm, vision, and unwillingness
to fail produced the first handheld commercial GPS receiver in 1989 and Magellgan
was the first company to make GPS devices affordable to consumers.

Subseries 1, Organizational Materials, 1988-1994, consists of an organizational chart detailing Magellan's corporate structure, a
document discussing the communication and functional objectives of the company, and
a company Christmas card. The Orbital Sciences Corporation profile was prepared by
Alex. Brown and Sons Incorporated and provides an overview of the ORBCOMM system technology,
a two-way data-only personal communications service.

Subseries 2, Strategic and Operating Plans, 1989-1995, consists of a variety of strategic and operational plans for the company. The plans
are arranged chronologically.

Subseries 3, Weekly Reports, 1988-1996, consists of handwritten and typescript reports
primarily from Randy Hoffman, president and CEO of Magellan and Gary Barta, Senior
Engineer and Vice President of engineering. The reports document issues that include,
personnel issues, product development, technological developments, military orders,
investments, marketing and sales, financial issues, orders, resource activities, and
future activities. The subseries is arranged chronologically and provides an excellent
overview of the issues facing the company and what actions/decisions were made.

Subseries 4, Company Newsletters, 1991-1992, consists of two external company newsletters,
The Global Navigator, 1991 and
The Magellan Explorer, 1992. The
Global Naviagtor was created for the marine market and was sent to all NAV PLUS owners as well as
dealers.

Series 2, Correspondence, 1989-1994 and undated, is divided into two subseries: Subseries 1, Customer Correspondence, 1989-1993 and
Subseries 2, Business Correspondence, 1989-1994 and undated. The customer-related
correspondence consists of letters from users of Magellan GPS units (primarily maritime-related)
and their feedback about the product. Some color photographs are included. The business-related
correspondence consists of records of conversations, invoices, suggestions for strategic
planning, correspondence between Randy Hoffman and the Boundary Found, and the agreement
and plan for the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and Magellan Corporation in
1994.

Subseries 1, Product Development, 1989-1994, consists of documentation related to product development at Magellan. There are
sketches for the third generation of GPS products, descriptive materials for the Meridian
Plus and third generation receiver, testing data from the Forest Service using GPS
in the wilderness near Missoula, Montana, and position description for the director
of product engineering at Magellan outlining the skills and responsibilities.

Subseries 2, Engineering Notebooks, 1987-1996, consists of bound, paginated and handwritten notebooks belonging to two Magellan
engineers, Janice Jones Blankenhorn, senior software engineer and Don Rea, director
of engineering. Each of Don Rea's notebooks contains a page of handwritten annotations
made in 2010 describing the contents. Don Rea's 1987 notebook contains documentation
on the original Magellan breadboard, custom digital chip (SAC 1), and the digital
board design and test, all of which deal with the first generation of the NAV 1000.
Rea's 1986 and 1988 notebook contains information about the first generation of software
used, GaAS chips, radio frequency (RF) board, second generation (NAV 5000), design
work for Swiss Army Chips (SACs), SAC2 digital chip, SAC2B, and the SAC3 chip. Don
Rea's 1993-1995 notebook contains notes on the testing of the SAC5, SAC5M and SAC6
custom digital integrated circuit for the third generation.

Subseries 3 Technical Notes, 1978-1994, consists of handwritten and typescript notes of Gary Barta, Janice Jones Blankenhorn,
John Foufos, Janice Intyre, Don Rea, Larry Weill, and James Yuan. Where possible,
file level information about what the notes relate to and the Magellan staff member
who wrote the notes is listed. Much of the documentation consists of equations, algorithms,
sketches, block diagrams, and narrative describing processes and research. The subseries
is loosely arranged chronologically.

Subseries 5, First Generation (NAV 1000/NAV 1200), 1985-1994, consists of technical notes, design notes, memoranda, drawings, and blueprints documenting
the development of the first generation (primarily the NAV 1000/NAV 1200), handheld
GPS unit produced by Magellan. The first generation of GPS were single channel receivers
and were quite simple. The NAV 1000 was 8.75" x 3.5" x 2.25" and weighed only 1.5
pounds. The NAV 1000 converted GPS satellite information into a satellite/navigation
(sat/nav) positioning. It used Gallium arsenide (GaAs) a compound of the elements
gallium and arsenic, and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology
to reduce its size and power consumption. GaAs is a semiconductor used in the manufacture
of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated
circuits, infrared light-emitting diodes, laser diodes, solar cells, and optical windows.
The device sold for approximately $3,000 dollars.

Subseries 6, Second Generation, 1988-1996, consists of technical notes, design notes, memorandums, drawings, and blueprints
documenting the development of the second generation (primarily the NAV 5000) handheld
GPS unit produced by Magellan. The NAV 5000 used five channels working simultaneously
to locate and collect data from GPS satellites. The units GaAs circuitry rapidly processed
the data received from the satellites to compute current location, altitude, velocity
and navigation in under one minute. The NAV 5000 was designed primarily for marine
use. Other second generation products included: OEM Brain, OEM 1/2 Brain, Nav 500
Pro, NAV 100M5, Skaynav, Fieldpro, NAV 5200 PM, NAV 5000A, NAV 5000D, DX, DLX, Pro
mark V, and the Map 7000.

Subseries 7, Third Generation, 1986-1994, consists of technical notes for the development of the third generation (primarily
Meridian and Trailblazer models) of Magellan GPS devices. Third generation models
were intended for the lower end of the GPS market and were compact hand-held (size,
weight, battery life) and a retail price that was reasonable. Other third generation
devices included: the meridian, Trailblazer, AIV10 OEM, Skatblazer, NAV 6500 PM, Meridian/TB/SB
XL, NAV 1200 Pm, NAV 1200 XL PM, NAV DLX 10, Promark X, and the Pro Mark X-CM.

Subseries 8, Swiss Army Chip (SAC) Development, 1987-1995, consists of technical notes, diagrams and drawings, and specifications for the development
of a digital chip used in Magellan GPS products. Don Rea and Norm Hunt of Magellan
are credited with naming the chip. The chip combined several elements--GPS DPS channels,
correalators, real time clock, alarm timer, interval timer, keyboard interface, display
interface, precise timing, power sequencing, memory decoding, code generators, and
beeper driver, to name a few--which allowed the development team reduce the overall
power, size, and cost of the chip. Magellan outsourced the manufacture of the SAC.

Subseries 9, Technical Products Development Seminars, 1997-1998, consists of documentation for nine seminars in a series of technology seminars
initiated by the product develpment group at Magellan. The seminars were created to
keep all staff up to date on past, present, and future technology developments at
Magellan. The nine seminars cover the history of Magellan GPS technology and address
specific areas of development such as antennas, circuits, signal processing, software,
navigation needs, and radio frequency. Other information includes tables providing
comparisons for the first, second, and third generations, timelines, SAC chip characteristics,
and product shipping dates. The seminars provide a good foundation for understanding
what the product development staff accomplished. Researchers should consult Series
8 which documents some of the technical seminars.

Subseries 11, TriQuint Semiconductor Materials, 1986-1992, consists of materials documenting TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc.'s work. TriQuint
was a division of Tektroninix, Inc., a manufacturer of analog and mixed signal gallium
arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuit products. TriQuint supplied custom radio frequency
(RF) and Gallium arsenide (GaAs) chips for Magellan's hand-held GPS systems and tested
its chips. Documentation includes trip summaries and observations to TriQuint by Don
Rea, a Magellan engineer as well as technical drawings, memorandums, development schedules,
invoices, purchase orders, and tests results, production quantity and costs, and specifications.
In 1986, Don Rea met Gary Barta, then principal engineer at TriQuint through his frequent
visits to the company. Barta led the engineeering development of the an integrated
circuit which combined the GPS L-band low-noise pre-amplifier, UHF local oscillator,
down converter and high speed digital divisers on a single gallium-arsenide chip.
Nothing like this had been done before for a cost senstive commerical application.
Barta later joined Magellan in November 1988 as Vice President of Engineering and
made the chip he had designed actually work in the environment of a hand-held product.

Subseries 3, Advertisements, 1988-1995 and undated, consists of point of purchase ads, artwork and transfer designs for Magellan products.
There are some oversize drawings (copies of blueprints) with the transfer design materials.

Subseries 6, Newspaper and Magazine Clippings, 1988-1996 and undated, consists primarily of magazine articles. The articles appeared in a variety of publications
and included
Defense Electronics,
Southern Boating,
Maritime Reporter,
Cruising World,
Boating the Journal of the Sport,
International Defense Review, and
Navigation News. The subseries is arranged chronologically.

Series 5, User Guides and Manuals, 1989-2005 and undated, consists of training, reference, and user guides for the consumer who purchased
Magellan products. The guides are primarily spiral bound and some are annotated. Multiple
copies of some years exist. The series is arranged chronologically.

Series 7, Photographs and Slides, 1987-1995 and undated, consists of slides, negatives, transparencies, and color and black-and-white prints
of Magellan products. Many of the images document early product concepts, and there
are some promotional and publicity materials. There is one folder of photographs with
images of employees from 1989.

Series 8, Audiovisual Materials, 1991-1998 and undated, consists of 1/2" VHS, BETA Cam SP, and 8 mm video cassettes documenting technical
seminars presented by Magellan Systems Corporation staff and instances of Magellan
products featured in news segments. Researchers consult the technical seminar documentation
in Series 3, Engineering and Product Development Materials. The series is arranged
chronologically.

Subject(s)

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note

Gloves must be worn when handling unprotected photographs and negatives. The 3 1/2"
and 5" floppy disks in the collection are inaccessible. The only exception is the
3 1/2" disk in box 4, folder 29. Files on this disk were printed.

Subseries 1, Organizational Materials, 1988-1994

Subseries 1 consists of an organizational chart detailing Magellan's corporate structure,
a document discussing the communication and functional objectives of the company,
and a company Christmas card. The Orbital Sciences Corporation profile was prepared
by Alex. Brown and Sons Incorporated and provides an overview of the ORBCOMM system
technology, a two-way data-only personal communications service.

Magellan's organizational chart, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

1

Communication/functional objectives, 1990-1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

2

Orbital Sciences Corporation (ORBCOM) profile, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

3

Christmas card (from Magellan crew), [1988?]

Subseries 2, Strategic and Operating Plans, 1989-1995

Subseries 2 consists of a variety of strategic and operational plans for the company.
The plans are arranged chronologically.

Strategic planning meeting, 1991 March

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

4

Strategic planning meeting, 1995

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

5

Strategic plan (product development), 1989-1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

6

Operating plan, 1990

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

7

Planning meeting, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

8

Space planning (for the company), 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

9

Offsite meeting, 1994 April

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

10

Subseries 3, Weekly Reports, 1988-1996

Subseries 3 consists of handwritten and typescript reports primarily from Randy Hoffman,
president and CEO of Magellan and Gary Barta, Senior Engineer and Vice President of
engineering. The reports document issues that include, personnel issues, product development,
technological developments, military orders, investments, marketing and sales, financial
issues, orders, resource activities, and future activities. The subseries is arranged
chronologically and provides an excellent overview of the issues facing the company
and what actions/decisions were made.

Weekly reports to the Board of Directors (Group I), 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

11

Weekly reports to the Board of Directors (Group I), 1992

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

12

Weekly reports to the Board of Directors (Group I), 1993

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

13

Weekly reports to the Board of Directors (Group II), 1988-1989

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

14

Weekly reports to the Board of Directors (Group II), 1990 January-1990 June

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

15

Weekly reports to the Board of Directors (Group II), 1990 July-1990 December

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

16

Weekly reports to the Board of Directors (Group II), 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

17

Weekly reports, 1993

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

18

Weekly reports, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

19

Weekly reports, 1995

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

20

Weekly reports, 1996

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

21

Subseries 4, Company Newsletters, 1991-1992

Subseries 4, consists of two external company newsletters,
The Global Navigator, 1991 and
The Magellan Explorer, 1992. The
Global Naviagtor was created for the marine market and was sent to all NAV PLUS owners as well as
dealers.

The Global Navigator, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

22

The Magellan Explorer, 1992

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

1

23

Series 2, Correspondence, 1989-1993

Series 2 is divided into two subseries: Subseries 1, Customer Correspondence, 1989-1993
and Subseries 2, Business Correspondence, 1989-1994 and undated. The customer-related
correspondence consists of letters from users of Magellan GPS units (primarily maritime-related)
and their feedback about the product. Some color photographs are included. The business-related
correspondence consists of records of conversations, invoices, suggestions for strategic
planning, correspondence between Randy Hoffman and the Boundary Found, and the agreement
and plan for the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and Magellan Corporation in
1994.

Subseries 1, Product Development, 1989-1994

Subseries 1 consists of documentation related to product development at Magellan.
There are sketches for the third generation of GPS products, descriptive materials
for the Meridian Plus and third generation receiver, testing data from the Forest
Service using GPS in the wilderness near Missoula, Montana, and position description
for the director of product engineering at Magellan outlining the skills and responsibilities.

Subseries 2, Engineering Notebooks, 1987-1996

Subseries 2, consists of bound, paginated and handwritten notebooks belonging to two
Magellan engineers, Janice Jones Blankenhorn, senior software engineer and Don Rea,
director of engineering. Each of Don Rea's notebooks contains a page of handwritten
annotations made in 2010 describing the contents. Don Rea's 1987 notebook contains
documentation on the original Magellan breadboard, custom digital chip (SAC 1), and
the digital board design and test, all of which deal with the first generation of
the NAV 1000. Rea's 1986 and 1988 notebook contains information about the first generation
of software used, GaAS chips, radio frequency (RF) board, second generation (NAV 5000),
design work for Swiss Army Chips (SACs), SAC2 digital chip, SAC2B, and the SAC3 chip.
Don Rea's 1993-1995 notebook contains notes on the testing of the SAC5, SAC5M and
SAC6 custom digital integrated circuit for the third generation.

Subseries 3, Technical Notes, 1978-1994

Subseries 3 consists of handwritten and typescript notes of Gary Barta, Janice Jones
Blankenhorn, John Foufos, Janice Intyre, Don Rea, Larry Weill, and James Yuan. Where
possible, file level information about what the notes relate to and the Magellan staff
member who wrote the notes is listed. Much of the documentation consists of equations,
algorithms, sketches, block diagrams, and narrative describing processes and research.
The subseries is loosely arranged chronologically.

Subseries 5, First Generation (NAV 1000 and NAV 1200), 1985-1994

Subseries 5 consists of technical notes, design notes, memoranda, drawings, and blueprints
documenting the development of the first generation (primarily the NAV 1000/NAV 1200),
handheld GPS unit produced by Magellan. The first generation of GPS were single channel
receivers and were quite simple. The NAV 1000 was 8.75" x 3.5" x 2.25" and weighed
only 1.5 pounds. The NAV 1000 converted GPS satellite information into a satellite/navigation
(sat/nav) positioning. It used Gallium arsenide (GaAs) a compound of the elements
gallium and arsenic, and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology
to reduce its size and power consumption. GaAs is a semiconductor used in the manufacture
of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated
circuits, infrared light-emitting diodes, laser diodes, solar cells, and optical windows.
The device sold for approximately $3,000 dollars.

Subseries 6, Second Generation (NAV 5000), 1988-1996

Subseries 6 consists of technical notes, design notes, memorandums, drawings, and
blueprints documenting the development of the second generation (primarily the NAV
5000) handheld GPS unit produced by Magellan. The NAV 5000 used five channels working
simultaneously to locate and collect data from GPS satellites. The units GaAs circuitry
rapidly processed the data received from the satellites to compute current location,
altitude, velocity and navigation in under one minute. The NAV 5000 was designed primarily
for marine use. Other second generation products included: OEM Brain, OEM 1/2 Brain,
Nav 500 Pro, NAV 100M5, Skaynav, Fieldpro, NAV 5200 PM, NAV 5000A, NAV 5000D, DX,
DLX, Pro mark V, and the Map 7000.

Subseries 7, Third Generation, 1986-1994

Subseries 7 consists of technical notes for the development of the third generation
(primarily Meridian and Trailblazer models) of Magellan GPS devices. Third generation
models were intended for the lower end of the GPS market and were compact hand-held
(size, weight, battery life) and a retail price that was reasonable. Other third generation
devices included: the meridian, Trailblazer, AIV10 OEM, Skatblazer, NAV 6500 PM, Meridian/TB/SB
XL, NAV 1200 Pm, NAV 1200 XL PM, NAV DLX 10, Promark X, and the Pro Mark X-CM.

Subseries 8, Swiss Army Chip (SAC) Development, 1987-1995

Subseries 8 consists of technical notes, diagrams and drawings, and specifications
for the development of a digital chip used in Magellan GPS products. Don Rea and Norm
Hunt of Magellan are credited with naming the chip. The chip combined several elements--GPS
DPS channels, correalators, real time clock, alarm timer, interval timer, keyboard
interface, display interface, precise timing, power sequencing, memory decoding, code
generators, and beeper driver, to name a few--which allowed the development team reduce
the overall power, size, and cost of the chip. Magellan outsourced the manufacture
of the SAC.

Subseries 9, Technical Product Development Seminars, 1997-1998

Subseries 9 consists of documentation for nine seminars in a series of technology
seminars initiated by the product develpment group at Magellan. The seminars were
created to keep all staff up to date on past, present, and future technology developments
at Magellan. The nine seminars cover the history of Magellan GPS technology and address
specific areas of development such as antennas, circuits, signal processing, software,
navigation needs, and radio frequency. Other information includes tables providing
comparisons for the first, second, and third generations, timelines, SAC chip characteristics,
and product shipping dates. The seminars provide a good foundation for understanding
what the product development staff accomplished. Researchers should consult Series
8 which documents some of the technical seminars.

Technical seminar, general information, 1997-1998

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

37

Technical seminar, Eleven Years and Three and Half Generations of GPS Technology Development
in Two Hours, 1997 November 5

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

38

Technical seminar, Quest for 50 Cent GPS Antenna, 1997 November 19

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

39

Technical seminar, Miscellaneous Circuits, 1997 December 3

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

40

Technical seminar, GPS Signal Processing, 1997 December 17

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

41

Technical seminar, Software Overview Outline, 1998 January 7

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

42

Technical seminar, Navigation Needs, 1998 January 21

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

43

Technical seminar, Radio Frequency Evolution at Magellan, 1998 January 28

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

44

Technical seminar, Fourth Generation Overview, 1998 February 25

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

45

Technical seminar, GPS Navigation for the Mariner, 1998 April 1

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

3

46

Subseries 10, Specifications, 1992-1994

Subseries 10 consists of preliminary, functional, and system requirements describing
technical characteristics for several Magellan products.

Subseries 11, TriQuint Semiconductor Materials, 1986-1992

Subseries 11 consists of materials documenting TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc.'s work.
TriQuint was a division of Tektroninix, Inc., a manufacturer of analog and mixed signal
gallium arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuit products. TriQuint supplied custom radio
frequency (RF) and Gallium arsenide (GaAs) chips for Magellan's hand-held GPS systems
and tested its chips. Documentation includes trip summaries and observations to TriQuint
by Don Rea, a Magellan engineer as well as technical drawings, memorandums, development
schedules, invoices, purchase orders, and tests results, production quantity and costs,
and specifications. In 1986, Don Rea met Gary Barta, then principal engineer at TriQuint
through his frequent visits to the company. Barta led the engineeering development
of the an integrated circuit which combined the GPS L-band low-noise pre-amplifier,
UHF local oscillator, down converter and high speed digital divisers on a single gallium-arsenide
chip. Nothing like this had been done before for a cost senstive commerical application.
Barta later joined Magellan in November 1988 as Vice President of Engineering and
made the chip he had designed actually work in the environment of a hand-held product.

Subseries 6, Newspaper and Press Clippings, 1988-1996

Subseries 6 consists primarily of magazine articles. The articles appeared in a variety
of publications and included
Defense Electronics,
Southern Boating,
Maritime Reporter,
Cruising World,
Boating the Journal of the Sport,
International Defense Review, and
Navigation News. The subseries is arranged chronologically.

Clippings, 1988

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

5

25

Clippings, 1989

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

5

26

Clippings, 1990 January-1990 May

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

1

Clippings, 1990 June-1990 July

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

2

Clippings, 1990 August-1990 December

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

3

Clippings, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

4

Clippings, 1992

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

5

Clippings, 1993

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

6

Clippings, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

7

Clippings, 1995

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

8

Clippings, 1996 and undated

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

9

For competitors, products,, 1990-1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

10

Series 5, User Guides and Manuals, 1989-2005 and undated

Series 5 consists of training, reference, and user guides for the consumer who purchased
Magellan products. The guides are primarily spiral bound and some are annotated. Multiple
copies of some years exist. The series is arranged chronologically.

NAV 1000, 1989

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

11

NAV 1000M, 1989

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

12

NAV 1000M, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

13

NAV 1000 M5, 1992

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

14

NAV 1000 PRO, 1990

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

15

NAV 1000 PRO, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

16

Developers' Kit User Guide (GPS Receiver Module, 1990 May 25

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

17

Magellan Systems Post Processing Software, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

18

Hardware User Guide (OEM GPS Receiver Module), 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

19

5000 PRO, 1992

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

20

Skyblazer XL GPS Receiver, 1995

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

21

GPS Satellite Navigator, 1993-1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

22

NAV 5000, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

23

NAV 5000A, 1993

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

6

24

NAV 5000D, 1992

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

1

5000 PRO, 1992

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

2

Skynav 5000, 1992

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

3

NAV 5000 DLX, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

4

NAV 5200, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

5

EC-10X, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

6

Skyblazer GPS Receiver, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

7

Trailblazer XL, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

8

Hotchkiss, Noel J.
A Comprehensive Guide to Land Navigation with GPS, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

9

Meridian XL and NAV 1200 XL, 1995

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

10

Meridian XL, 1996

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

11

Patriot GPS, 1995

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

12

GPS 3000 Satellite Navigator, 1995

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

13

GPS 4000 and GPS 4000XL (English and French), 1996

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

14

GPS 2000 and GPS 2000XL, 1996-1997

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

15

GPS ColorTRAK Satellite Navigator, 1997

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

16

GPS Pioneer, 1997

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

17

Skystar Plus GPS Receiver, 1997

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

18

GPS Blazer 12 (French and English), 1998

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

19

GPS Tracker, 1998

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

20

GSC 100, 1998

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

21

NAV 6000, 1998

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

22

GPS 310, 1999

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

23

GPS 315/320 (English and French), 1999

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

24

MAP 330, 2000

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

7

25

Meridian Series of GPS Receivers, 2001

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

8

1-2

SporTrak Handheld GPS, 2002

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

8

3

eXplorist Handheld GPS, 2005

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

8

4

GPS product accessory list, V.2.03 software, undated

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

8

5

Series 6, Financial Materials, 1991-1995 and undated

Series 6 consists of stock information, a Securities and Exchange Commission registration
statement, correspondence, registration rights agreements, preferred stock purchase
agreements, agreement and plan of merger documents between Magellan Corporation and
Orbital Sciences Corporation (November 1994), and two floppy discs (3 1/2" and 5")
containing information about the company and its staff.

Magellan Corporation Prospectus, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

8

6

Magellan Corporation Prospectus (disks), undated

Box

Folder

Computer disks / tapes

8

7

Magellan direct investment information, 1991-1995

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

8

8-9

Magellan Corporation merger with Orbital Sciences Corporation, 1994

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

8

10

Departmental expense report, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

8

11

Cost analysis of GPS kit accessory, 1991

Box

Folder

Mixed materials

8

12

Series 7, Photographs and Slides, 1987-1995 and undated

Series 7 consists of slides, negatives, transparencies, and color and black-and-white
prints of Magellan products. Many of the images document early product concepts, and
there are some promotional and publicity materials. There is one folder of photographs
with images of employees from 1989.

Slides of early product concepts, 1987

Box

Folder

Slides

8

13

Early product concepts, 1987

Box

Folder

Photos

8

14

Keyboard studies by Jean Tuck McGregor, 1988

Box

Folder

Photos

8

15

Employees, 1989 and undated

Box

Folder

Photos

8

16

Military materials (English and Arabic), 1992-1993

Box

Folder

Photos

8

17

Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) materials, 1992-1995

Box

Folder

Photos

8

18

Nonworking aesthetic models (Trailblazer), 1993

Box

Folder

Photos

8

19

Professional and promotional materials, 1993-1995

Box

Folder

Photos

8

20

Magellan NAV 1000 Pro, circa 1990s

Box

Folder

Photos

8

21

Nonworking aesthetic models (military GPS), undated

Box

Folder

Photos

8

22

Nonworking aesthetic models (Meridian), undated

Box

Folder

Photos

8

23

Nonworking aesthetic models (Navigator), undated

Box

Folder

Photos

8

24

Early product concepts, undated

Box

Folder

Photos

8

25

Series 8, Audiovisual Materials, 1991-1998 and undated

Series 8 consists of 1/2" VHS, BETA Cam SP, and 8 mm video cassettes documenting technical
seminars presented by Magellan Systems Corporation staff and instances of Magellan
products featured in news segments. Researchers consult the technical seminar documentation
in Series 3, Engineering and Product Development Materials. The series is arranged
chronologically.